Customer Reviews

Sundials: Their Construction and Use

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This is a great book to learn about the various types of sundials & how to make them. It is a little weak on the 'how it works' side of things, but is great on the 'how to do it' side. It thoroughly describes how to construct each of the main types of dials, including how to make a verier for more accurate measurement of the shadow's position on the dial. This, together with Albert Waugh & Rene Rohr's book's can give you a good understanding of both the theory and practice of sundial construction. (There is overlap in each of the books, but this book pre-dates the other two somewhat.) I would recommend this book as a worthwhile purchase for anyone interested in understanding and/or construction of sundials.

The Mayalls start this book with a fanciful Mrs. Caveman (this was written in 1934, remember) reminding Mr. to bring his shadow-stick so he'd be home from the hunt in time for chores. That gets the first aspect of the book off to good start, desribing the incredible variety of sundials known through history. The menagerie includes everything from pocket-sized "shepherd's" dials to major pieces of architecture. It includes dials that show only morning hours (on an east wall of a building), a garden laid out like a sundial with topiary gnomon, and even a moon-dial for night-time hours.

The other major feature of this book, interleaved with the first, gives detailed directions for making many kinds of sundial: wall-mounted, horizontal, and many more. The instructions show how to adapt dials to any northern longitude or latitude, giving time accurate to the minute. I imagine the dedicated reader could adapt the directions to the southern hemisphere, where the shadow's direction is reversed. The intermediate latitudes, between the tropics of cancer and capricorn, present interesting problems that I did not see addressed, however. In that equatorial band, the sun acts "northern" for part of the year and "southern" for the rest. I would have liked to see examples of how this challenge is overcome.

That's nit-picking, though. It's an approachable book with fascinating examples and clear instruction without daunting math. I recommend it to anyone interested in making sundials of their own, or who just want to know more about their history.

//wiredweird

Superb book!! One of the classics and one I have been hunting for quite a while. Discussion of history and usage is good and the simplified calcs for all occasions are very useful. Lots of ideas for the DIY crowd or to just fool around with.

An excellent read. Very comprehensive.
Suitable for the novice or experienced Sundialler.
Unfortunately most of the photographs
have not been very well reproduced.